Background
Decades of research has found that family structure has the power to impact a child’s development. For example, children growing up in two parent homes tend to have better health and social outcomes than those who grow up in single parent homes . Teen pregnancy (defined as pregnancy between the ages of 15 and 19 years old), costs U.S. taxpayers between $9 and $11 billion dollars per year and Virginia is estimated to spend $183 million dollars on factors related to teen pregnancy.
Not only are teen mothers more likely to drop out of high school, find themselves unemployed, use public assistance, and have lower incomes, but their children are also at elevated risk for a variety of similar outcomes. The fact that low levels of family supervision are related to higher rates of juvenile delinquency in adolescents is particularly troublesome in the context of incarceration trends. The children of young, single parents, particularly those also experiencing financial strain, are thus at heightened risk of delinquent behavior, putting them at increased risk of encounters with law enforcement. Over time, these encounters may predispose these individuals to heightened risk of entering the criminal justice system. When these individuals are thus absent from family life themselves, the potential exists for the cycle to repeat itself, as children of incarcerated parents are more likely to be involved with the criminal justice system themselves.
Main Findings
In 2017, the rate of teen pregnancy (per 1,000 women) was 18.8 in the United States. In the same time period, the rate of teen pregnancy (per 1,000 women) in Virginia was 15 and in Halifax county the rate was estimated at 30.8. This put Halifax at the 24th highest rate of teen births out of 134 counties in Virginia. While the number of teen births has been declining since 2003, the fact that Halifax was in the upper portion of the distribution indicates the potential for effective interventions on this factor.
The overall decline in teen birth rates across Virginia in the past decade is encouraging, but there exist distinct spatial clusters where higher teen birth rates exist. In 2018, south west and Southside Virginia both seemed to have higher teen birth rates than much of the rest of Virginia.